Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) is disillusioned with Taiwan's political scene. Fed up with the constant partisan bickering and lunch-box battles in the legislature, the founder and president of the Lung Ying-tai Cultural Foundation (龍應台文化基金會) — a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Taipei — hopes to provide an antidote to Taiwan's political chaos through hosting a series of lectures called Taipei Salon (台北沙龍). The lectures are conducted in English.
Begun last year, Lung's idea combines the French institution of literary salons with modern ideas on how to create a civil society — where an informed citizenry is empowered to make intelligent voting decisions, participate in politics and hold government and industry to account.
"[We] want to have an impact on society through intellectual discussion ... away from [the] narrow path of political fighting or reform," Lung said in an interview.
Creating a civil society is something that Lung knows a lot about. Appointed Taipei City's first cultural csar in 1999, during her four-year term she designed and implemented a cultural policy that increased the visibility of the arts in the city. With 15 book titles to her name, the current chair of arts and humanities at Tsing Hua University frequently publishes critical essays in European magazines and newspapers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
This month's lectures begin tomorrow with Jean-Claude Poimboeuf, Director of French Institute in Taipei, who will discuss how the French maintain their unique cultural identity in the age of globalization.
On March 17, Pankaj Mishra, a novelist and contributor to the New York Times, will talk about India's path to democracy. This month's series will end on March 24 with Julian Nida-Ruemelin — professor of political theory and philosophy at the University of Munich and a former minister of culture — who will discuss the relationship between globalization and democracy.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LUNG yINGTAI CULTURAL FOUNDATION
Past speakers include David Plott, the former editor-in-chief of The Far Eastern Economic Review and current professor of journalism at the University of Hong Kong, and Jurgen Gerbig, Director of the German Cultural Center in Taipei.
By conducting the lectures in English, Lung hopes that foreigners will attend the lectures and participate in the discussions.
"I suspect [expats] have been closed up — because of the language barrier — in their own circles, which is not fair because they are citizens of the city," she said. "But so far we have not been able to reach the expat community because we don't know where they are."
Though foreigners are invited to participate, the youth of Taiwan are the real focus of Lung's salon.
"We want to get in touch with the younger generation," she said. "We are disappointed with anyone over 40 — so we decided to carry on a dialogue with people under 40," she added jokingly.
"We want to … cultivate the minds of the younger generation so that they are open-minded ... are concerned about global issues [and] ... have compassion for the weaker, whether in terms of income, resources, or in environmental areas — global citizenship in other words.
Though a tall order, Lung has found remarkable success with Taipei Salon. The last two lectures saw the auditorium at Yuehan Hall (月涵堂) packed to capacity with everyone from high school students to young professionals.
In addition to Taipei Salon, Lung's foundation has also set up a Thinkers Salon (思沙龍), a club with seminars conducted in Chinese that exposes participants to different cultures throughout the world. Under the title "What you do not know" (你所不知道的), it has covered topics such as Latin America, North and South Korea and the conflicts between the Israelis and Palestinians.
By doing so, Lung believes the youth of Taiwan will come to see they have the power to create an efficient civil society, thus furthering the island's democratization.
"We have to … focus on the younger generation and that kind of idea leads us to do what we are doing now," she said.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50